Iridescent
by b rated romance
Summary: Nicklaus Crowl is a beast of a man; born & bred to be a warrior & a King. He finds a condo in San Francisco hoping to change; but the duties of an heir are not impeded by distance. When Caroline Forbes enters his life, he finds himself questioning everything he's allowed himself to become. When the time comes for Klaus to make his choice, he risks losing his only salvation
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

The rain came down hard and fast. Puddles littered the pocked sidewalks. The droplets drummed against her umbrella, slipping along the vinyl and dripping off the edges. Storm clouds the color of cigarette ash stretched above the San Francisco horizon, the heavy burn of dawn skirting in at the edges. It was a gloomy day and the prospect of returning home to put on her pajamas and start the fireplace in her bedroom was beginning to seem irresistible. Beneath the overhang outside of her favorite coffee shop, Caroline paused to shake off the rain from her umbrella. Out of the corner of her eye she watched a man climb from the back seat of a taxi, his fedora hanging low over his face as the rain pelted his trench coat. His long strides carried him to the door of the coffee shop within seconds. Just as she secured her closed umbrella, he pulled the door open.

To her surprise, he stepped back and, with a polite smile and an open-palmed hand gesture, he allowed her to go first. She could smell his cologne - earthy, musky, it reminded her of the forests in Oregon, where she'd grown up. She murmured a thank-you and ducked inside. The rush of warm air hit her the instant she crossed the threshold and she sighed happily, setting her umbrella down on a small table to for two beside one of the many windows lining the far wall. Rain dribbled along the glass, distant now that she was safely inside the cozy shop. Fishing her wallet out of her purse, she ran a hand through her wild curls, pulling them back from her face. She navigated her way through the small tables and got in line at the counter, debating a hot cider over her usual mocha cappuccino as she dug a few small bills from the folds of her wallet.

Behind the counter, the barista smiled at her with vague recognition. Caroline's eyes did a cursory scan of the danishes and pastries lining the glass display cases. She ordered a croissant and a large hot cider, and stuffed a few singles into the tip jar as her change was counted out. Equipped with her breakfast and cider, she made her way back to the table beside the window and settled into a seat to enjoy herself a little before she would be expected at the office.

Two bites into her croissant, a rumbling voice approached her just out of her peripheral vision.

"Is this seat taken?"

To her mild surprise, it was the man she'd seen get out of the taxi, the gentleman that had opened the door for her; he'd removed his fedora and his trench coat was folded and draped over his left arm. His free hand held a steaming cup of black coffee. His aqua-green eyes peered down at her above a generous smile. Her eyes followed the lines of his lips, the wide expanse of his grin, the opalescent glow of his teeth. Unconsciously her lips pulled up to mirror his and she remembered how flaky croissants were.

Gingerly covering her crumb-sprinkled mouth with her hand before speaking, Caroline fumbled, "No, not at all. Please sit." She wiped her lips free of debris with a napkin from the table dispenser as he set down his drink and moved his trench coat to the back of the empty chair.

He moved with an air of weightlessness, slow and graceful. "I'm Nicklaus," he said, leaning back in his chair, one ankle crossed over the opposite knee, his fingers sliding possessively around his coffee cup. "Are you from the area?"

"Yes, I've been here for almost five years." Caroline softened her posture, relaxing into the conversation. She added, "And I'm Caroline."

His gaze was almost a pressure on her skin, barely detectable, but a little disarming. In fact, his entire demeanor was disarming - the set to his jawline, the angle of his posture, the slant to his mouth. The way he held himself as if he were ready to get up and vanish at any instant; as if he were expecting the need to arise. Still, she didn't get up to leave.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Caroline," he said, his smile stretching open over his teeth again. She knew it was inappropriate to study the way her name rolled around on his tongue, as if he were tasting it, but it didn't stop her. "I'm new to the area, myself. In fact, I just unpacked my condo yesterday."

"I see you've wasted no time in finding the best coffee shop in the area."

His returning smirk was almost devilish. "I'm very intuitive in terms of product quality." He sipped at his coffee, and though the cup was still steaming thick rivulets of vapor, he didn't seem to notice the heat. "Such a dreary day," he added, "I'd like to make something good out of it but I have no idea where to begin."

"The Greenhouse is open this early," she said, flippantly, tearing off a piece of her croissant and popping it into her mouth.

"That sounds like a good start." Klaus straightened up and leaned forward, toward her, his eyes virtually glowing with expectation, and said, "Would you come with me? Are you doing anything else today?"


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

The low din of the coffee shop faded into nothing. Caroline harbored a stubborn breath in her lungs for a moment until it stuttered from her throat unexpectedly. Was she actually considering it? She couldn't deny that she was. Her previous urges for skipping work doubled down and she fought to find a good reason not to miss the morning. Maybe she'd go in after lunch… With that malachite gaze boring down on her, she couldn't fathom a single reason not to spend the morning with him at the Greenhouse. Though Caroline did not consider herself to be a spontaneous person, she allowed herself to go along. She felt strangely compelled by him; as if she'd caught sight of something hidden under the layers of his personality, some flicker of intrigue darting behind his eyes, and she couldn't shake her curiosity. She wanted to decipher him, unriddle his behavior and chart the passageways of his mind, until she'd cracked his secrets.

She was certain there were plenty of them.

All of her internal wandering had happened in less than a minute, and Klaus still leaned toward her, a burning expectancy still alight behind his irises. She gave him a delicate smile, careful not to let on to her own glee toward an improvised morning. "I think I have some time before I have to go in to the office."

"Fantastic," he replied, his voice low enough that she barely heard the whispered traces of a Manhattan accent.

They sat for nearly an hour, sipping at their drinks and watching it rain, talking. It had been a desperately long while since Caroline had sat down and taken the time to have a real conversation with someone outside of work. She had no siblings and when her parents died, she realized she had no one. A few acquaintances, sure, but no one of substance. That's why she'd moved to San Francisco, after all; to escape the ghosts that walked the streets of New York. Once she'd made it to San Francisco - her fresh start, her new life - she'd simply adapted to the solitude. She never gave much thought to it. She socialized at work and that seemed to be enough.

Nicklaus was a dazzling conversationalist - no matter what subject they touched on, he contained a wealth of information pertaining to it. She'd taken Classical Literature in college, and it had turned into a mild obsession as she got older - she had bookshelves lining the walls in her apartment, full of copies of Oedipus and Macbeth, creased and stained bindings right alongside the glossy neons of newer authors. He knew them all, and to her unabashed awe, even quoted a few for her.

In an hour they had discussed more things close to Caroline's heart than she'd ever discussed with anyone in any amount of time.

Outside, he hailed a cab and held her umbrella for her while she got in. The ride to the Greenhouse was spent in much the same way as their time in the coffee shop; though, the conversation had turned to personal histories. Klaus' eyes watched her with a comfortable delight as she lost herself in her memories, and Caroline went blissfully unaware of his strange silence about his own history. Later she would wonder why he'd let her ramble like such an idiot, but with the subtle quirk of his smile shifting upward during all the right parts of her stories she found it hard to stop talking. When they arrived at the Greenhouse, he insisted she allow him to buy her ticket. It seemed they were the sole visitors to the exhibit. Amid the blood-red heliconias and the purple-spotted lilies, she caught herself laughing constantly.

In the hybrid orchid display, she caught him staring. When she lingered by the black-stemmed fleshy pink lotus flowers, he snapped off a sprig and tucked it behind her ear. Caroline wondered where he came from, what it was about that particular day that had led their paths to cross, but instead of dwelling on her questions, she slipped her hand into his. By the time they reached the waxy white petals of the anthuriums, their fingers were entwined and she felt certain she wouldn't make it to work by lunch. Three hours after they walked in, they reached the end of the tour and he opened her umbrella over their heads and offered her his arm.

With the sneaking grin that she'd already grown so fond of, he said, "Please tell me I can treat you to lunch? I've had a brilliant morning with you, I'd like to thank you."

She didn't get the chance to send a text to her secretary until they reached the restaurant. Locked away in the women's room, fiddling with her hair and re-applying a thin layer of mauve lipstick, she saw a new spark in her eyes that she didn't recognize. Caroline struggled to understand what about the day was so different from the rest, what it was that allowed her to break all of her own rules, but she concluded that she simply didn't care enough.

For once she was doing what she wanted, let the consequences be what they would be.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

In hindsight, she was able to piece together the events of the afternoon that lead up to the mess she found herself entangled in. Though her memory did not seem impaired, she still felt she'd missed some key instrument in the way things fell together.

Caroline remembered lunch at a seaside cafe, sitting at the window seats and watching the rain assault the ocean. She remembered the sweet taste of her crab cakes and the way his laugh seemed to disperse the ghosts of anyone else that may have existed inside of that restaurant from her vision. They had watched each other, sometimes through their reflections in the glass, sometimes unabashedly over their plates or the rim of their glasses. After lunch, he'd ordered a bottle of wine for them to share and as she sent another message to her secretary, he uncorked it and poured them each a glass. She had stopped wondering if she'd be making it in to work. They made eyes at each other across the table, clinking their glasses together every time they agreed about something. She couldn't keep the thought of his gaze from her mind, she couldn't ignore the way his beryl irises seemed to be drinking her in.

After they finished the bottle, to her surprise - she hadn't noticed how many times he'd poured her a fresh glass until the bottle had been emptied - he led her outside as the storm finally broke and the clouds parted. They shed their shoes at the stairs and he hid her purse beneath the deck. The ocean-tinted air still smelled heavily of rain, and the wet sand felt nice between her toes. He took her hand and they walked in a comfortable silence for a long while. Something about wine had softened her senses and she got lost in the small details - the sound of seagulls, the strength of his fingers, the glint of sunlight catching on the waves. They had spent so much time talking without needing to force it that she was mildly surprised how easy it was to be silent with him. His presence did not make her feel pressured to interact, he seemed perfectly content to simply walk with her. Caroline wondered if this was what it was like to fall for someone. She'd loved Matt once, she thought, a long time ago but she was certain it had been love.

Klaus was different. Something at his center was not like any man she'd known. She'd caught tiny glimpses of it, hints at the secrets she'd detected so early on, but it didn't seem like he was deliberately keeping things from her. Or at least, she had no way of knowing what kind of avoidance she should be looking for. He readily discussed his wealthy parents, his education, his desire to find a career he could enjoy for the rest of his life. Thus far he was a full-time student; he claimed a number of degrees already from various colleges and universities - Harvard, Brown, Princeton, Yale. He promised to show them to her if she'd like. He was quite the hobbyist despite his studies, spending immeasurable time painting and hiking and toying with his own personal scientific experiments.

It was just after three when they meandered back to the deck to retrieve their shoes, and as he ran in to fetch a towel to clean the sand from their feet, she checked her phone. Her secretary, Samantha, had responded.

_What do you want me to tell your appointments?_

Caroline made a face. She hadn't really thought about it. Couldn't she simply be busy? She answered, _Tell them I'm home sick and reschedule for next week._

Klaus returned then, and dropped to his knees in front of her on the wooden steps as she tossed her phone to her purse. The towel was slightly damp but it was warm, and she just laughed when he began to wipe the sand from her toes. She'd never been around someone who was so comfortable touching her when they'd only known each other a day. In fact, she couldn't remember a time when she'd let anyone touch her so freely.

He discarded the towel but his hands didn't leave her; she could feel his fingertips pressing against her skin, his thumbs gently rubbing along her ankle bones in soothing motions. She was marveling at the attentive way he touched her, studying the angle of his nose and the curve of his lips. He looked up and their eyes locked. Caroline felt her breath evacuate her lungs instantly as her pulse skyrocketed.

What was he thinking?

Then he moved and his lips grazed hers, hesitantly at first, until she leaned closer and a switch flipped between them. Almost immediately, his hand shifted up to her neck, his fingers knotting in her hair as he deepened the kiss. His knee wedged between her calves as he shifted his weight to get closer, and her nerve endings caught fire. Without an ounce of inhibition, she kissed him back. Somehow, he got them both into a cab.


End file.
